Geelani put under house arrest

19 April 2002The Times of IndiaPTI

SRINAGAR: Former Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani was put under house arrest, while another senior Hurriyat leader and acting chairman of JKLF, Javid Ahmad Mir, was taken into preventive custody by police here Friday, official sources said.Mir was detained along with six of his associates from Dalgate area of the city when he tried to stage a demonstration against alleged atrocities by security forces including custodial killings outside the local office of the United Nations Military Observers Group, the sources said.JKLF activists, led by Mir, assembled at Dalgate shortly after Friday prayers and tried to march towards the UNMOG office located at nearby Sonawar, the sources said.The sources said police swung into action and took Mir and his six associates - Nissar Ahmad Bhat, Zahoor Ahmad, Mohammad Maqbool, Adil Bashir, Imran Zarger and Abid - into custody for violation of prohibitory order in the city. They were lodged in police station Ram Munshibagh.Earlier in the day, a posse of policemen encircled firebrand Jamaat-e-Islami leader Geelani''s house at Hyderpora on the outskirts of Srinagar and restricted his movement.Geelani was scheduled to visit Bandipora area of Baramulla district in north Kashmir and address a Friday congregation in the main mosque there, the sources said, adding that authorities put him under house arrest to foil his attempt to organise a protest in Bandipora town after the prayers.